1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system or device for managing clean garments workers have on in a clean room which is used as a manufacturing room of semiconductor devices or the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
When the worker enters a clean room with dust adhered to the worker""s clean garment, the dust may be carried into the clean room. The dust causes a decrease in the yield of products manufactured in the clean room, for example, semiconductor devices or liquid crystal panels. Therefore the clean garments of the workers entering the clean room are required to be clean. In order to maintain the clean room at a predetermined cleanliness, the worker puts on a clean garment outside of the clean room, for example, in a dressing room, and, before entering the clean room, the dust adhered to the clean garment is removed in an air shower room.
In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. P04-186043A (1992) discloses one example of the conventional structures of air shower room. Prior art of this publication (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cPrior art {circle around (1)}xe2x80x9d) aims to remove the dust adhered to the clean garments of the workers or the objects carried into a clean room by continuous air blow and ion blow from an ionizer. In an air shower room of Prior art {circle around (1)}, when the worker enters there, the dust removal is performed while measuring the number of dust in the air shower room. When the measured value is below a predetermined standard value, the worker is allowed to enter the clean room.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. P07-208784A (1995) discloses another example of the conventional structures of clean room. In prior art of this publication (referred to as xe2x80x9cPrior art {circle around (2)}xe2x80x9d), before the worker enters a clean room, dust and chemical impurity adhered to the clean garment of the worker or the object carried into the clean room are removed in an air shower room and a chemical contamination removing room, thereby preventing the ingress of dust or the like. In the clean room of Prior art {circle around (2)}, when the worker or the like enters the chemical contamination removing room, the concentration of chemical contamination in that room is measured. If the measured value is below a predetermined standard value, the worker or the like is allowed to enter the clean room.
In general, the change of clean garments is merely made at predetermined intervals. At the present time, to decide whether the clean garment of the worker should be changed or not within the predetermined interval often depends on the individual decision. Such a decision is, however, subjective. Even during the work in a clean room, dust or chemical contamination might be adhered to a clean garment. Its amount adhered thereto depends upon factors, such as the size of the clean garment, the working contents of the worker, work environment, and the like. In existing air shower rooms and clean rooms, however, the cleanliness of clean garments is managed by setting a uniform criterion. Therefore, in the present circumstances, management of clean garments fails to consider factors which cause adhesion of dust, etc., and differ from one clean garment to another. Prior art {circle around (1)} and Prior art {circle around (2)} in the Publications merely show techniques of removing dust, etc. and monitoring cleanliness, without separately distinguishing clean garments. Also, both Publications fail to disclose means with which the present circumstances as stated is improved and cleanliness management per clean garment is executable.
In view of the foregoing, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a clean garment managing system with which the cleanliness of clean garments can be managed per clean garment.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide, in addition to the realization of the first object, a clean garment managing system capable of managing the cleanliness of clean garments in consideration of factors which cause adhesion of dust, etc., and differ from one clean garment to another.
It is a third object of the present invention to provide an air shower room capable of realizing the first and/or second object.
It is a fourth object of the present invention to provide a computer readable record medium recording a program with which the processing for realizing the first and/or second object is performed on a computer.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a clean garment managing system comprises: an identification data input part that acquires and outputs an identification data identifying a predetermined clean garment; a measuring part that measures a cleanliness of the predetermined clean garment and outputs a measurement data about a measurement result; a data base in which at least a comparison data about the cleanliness of the clean garment is stored in association with the identification data; and a signal processing part that receives the identification data and the measurement data and performs a comparison processing in which a comparison is made between the comparison data in association with the identification data received and the measurement data received.
According to a second aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first aspect is characterized in that the comparison data is the measurement data.
According to a third aspect, the clean garment managing system of the second aspect is characterized in that data about an order in which the measurement data is obtained is stored in association with the measurement data in the data base.
According to a fourth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to third aspects is characterized in that the comparison processing is a processing in which a comparison is made between the comparison data in association with the identification data received and the measurement data received, to calculate a difference therebetween.
According to a fifth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to fourth aspects is characterized in that the measurement part is at least of a dust counter for measuring the amount of dust in air and an impurity measuring instrument for measuring the concentration of impurity in air.
According to a sixth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to fourth aspects is characterized in that the measurement part includes an image capturing device; the measurement data and comparison data include an image data; and the signal processing part performs the comparison processing by image comparison processing.
According to a seventh aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first aspect is characterized in that the measurement part includes an image capturing device; the measurement data includes an entire image data of the predetermined clean garment captured by the image capturing device; the comparison data includes an image data about a clean state of the predetermined clean garment in association with the identification data; and the signal processing part performs the comparison processing by image comparison processing.
According to an eighth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to seventh aspects is characterized in that the image processing part further performs judgment processing in which the cleanliness of the predetermined clean garment is judged according to a criterion common to clean garments, based on a result of the comparison processing.
According to a ninth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to seventh aspects is characterized in that the data base further stores a reference data in association with the identification data; and the signal processing part further references to the data base to set a criterion based on the reference data in association with the received identification data, to judge the cleanliness of the predetermined clean garment according to the set criterion.
According to a tenth aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to ninth aspects is characterized in that the identification data is recorded in an ID card carried by a worker wearing the predetermined clean garment.
According to an eleventh aspect, the clean garment managing system of the first to ninth aspects is characterized in that the identification data is recorded on the clean garment.
According to a twelfth aspect, there is provided an air shower room comprising a clean garment managing system in accordance with any one of the first to eleventh aspects.
According to a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable record medium recording a program which is used in computer management of a cleanliness of clean garments by employing an identification data input part that acquires and outputs an identification data identifying a predetermined clean garment, a measuring part that measures the cleanliness of the clean garment and outputs a measurement data about its measurement result, and a data base in which at least a comparison data of the cleanliness of the clean garment is stored in association with the identification data. The computer readable record medium records the program with which the computer executes the steps of: (a) acquiring the identification data from the identification data input part; (b) acquiring the measurement data from the measuring part; and (c) referencing the data base for making a comparison between the comparison data in association with the identification data acquired and the measurement data acquired.
In the first aspect, the identification data and a predetermined clean garment are associated with each other, and an identification data and a comparison data are associated with each other. Thereby, the measurement data of the cleanliness of the predetermined clean garment and the comparison data are associated with each other via the identification data. Therefore, the comparison processing in the signal processing part can be performed per clean garment. With the comparison result, the cleanliness of clean garments can be managed per clean garment.
In the second aspect, since comparison data is measurement data, by storing (at least) the previous measurement data in a data base, the signal processing part can reference to the data base to compare the now obtained measurement data and the previous data.
In the third aspect, measurement data and the data about the order they are measured are stored in a data base. By referencing to the data base, it is therefore possible to obtain, for example, information about a comparison between the now obtained measurement data and the past measurement data, or the history of the cleanliness of a predetermined clean garment.
In the fourth aspect, the signal processing part calculates the difference between the now obtained measurement data and the previous measurement data at the comparison processing. Therefore, even when judgement of cleanliness is made according to a common (uniform) criterion for all the clean garments, by using a relative value, namely, the difference, judgement is made upon canceling the base quantity of cleanliness which can differ from one clean garment to another.
In the fifth aspect, any one of the effects in the first to fourth aspects is obtainable.
In the sixth aspect, upon acquiring the measurement data as the discoloration of a clean garment, any one of effects in the first to fourth aspects is obtainable.
In the seventh aspect, since measurement data is the entire image data of a predetermined clean garment captured by the image capturing device serving as a measuring part, the measurement data contains information about the size of the clean garment. This permits cleanliness management per clean garment, taking its size into consideration. In addition, since comparison data is data associated with a predetermined clean garment, the degree in which the cleanliness is reduced from a clean state is obtainable by performing comparison processing per clean garment.
In the eighth aspect, any one of the effects in the first to seventh aspects is obtained, besides, judgement of the cleanliness of a clean garment can be performed.
In the ninth aspect, the signal processing part sets a judgment criterion based on a reference data associated with the received identification data, and then performs judgement of the cleanliness of a clean garment. At this time, by using, as the reference data, data about the size of the clean garment, the work contents of the worker wearing the clean garment, work environment, etc., judgment processing of the cleanliness of the clean garment can be made taking such information into consideration. This permits a further detailed management per clean garment.
In the tenth aspect, the ID card carried by the worker can be directly utilized in the clean garment managing system.
In the eleventh aspect, since the identification data is recorded on a clean garment, it is possible to make certain of the association between the clean garment and the identification data.
In the twelfth aspect, it is able to provide an air shower room with which any one of the effects in the first to eleventh aspects is offered and the cleanliness of a clean room is improved.
In the thirteenth aspect, cleanliness management of clean garments is performed on a computer, and the same effect as in the first aspect is obtained.